Various types of simulated building materials have been used to enhance the appearance of the surfaces of buildings. Traditional building materials, such as stone, brick, stucco, slate or wood may be expensive, time consuming and labor intensive to obtain, transport to a building site, shape, assemble and otherwise work with. While synthetic, composite or other replacement materials may be less expensive, easier to work with and/or more lightweight, their appearance may be considered to be aesthetically inferior to natural building materials. Thus, a need exists for building materials that mimic the appearance of stone, brick, wood, etc. while maintaining the advantages of the substitute materials.
Methods and compositions for producing materials that simulate stone, brick, wood or other materials have been reported. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,747,075 discloses methods and compositions for producing a simulated limestone prepared from polyester resin, alumina, microspheres, sand and pigment. U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,230 discloses methods for producing synthetic materials simulating marble, granite or other stone, using a thermosetting resin. U.S. Pat. No. 6,599,452 discloses methods for making simulated stone or wood architectural items from mineral fiber-reinforced hybrid polyurethane. U.S. Pat. No. 6,634,617 discloses a system to produce simulated stone or rock from cementitious material. Each of the patents listed above is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Such simulated materials may be incorporated, for example, into architectural panels that may be attached to the surfaces of interior or exterior walls or other building surfaces, including but not limited to doors, roofs, porches, fireplace surrounds, skirting, or other architectural or structural elements. Such panels may be used to enhance the appearance of a building, by simulating a stone, brick, stucco or other type of building surface. However, the appearance of a different building material is negated if the attachment sites are exposed. Such panels may be attached to a surface using, for example, screws, nails, anchors, or other attachment devices. The easiest way to attach a panel to a surface would be, for example, to place a screw, nail or other attachment device through the panel into the surface. However, the head of the screw or nail would remain visible from the exterior surface of the panel. Since screws, nails and similar attachment devices are generally not used to attach real brick or stone to a building surface, the visibility of the attachment device would destroy the illusion of a simulated building material.
Thus, to maintain the appearance of a real stone, brick or other surface, the screw or nail heads need to be sunk below the surface level of the panel and covered with grout, spackle, foam or another material that is colored and textured to resemble the rest of the panel. This may be feasible where the panels are uniformly colored and textured. However, certain types of simulated building materials, such as simulated stone blocks, vary in color across a panel. Trying to obtain an exact color match for each attachment site is a difficult and time-consuming process. Thus, a need exists for simulated building materials that may be attached to a wall or other building surface in such a way that the attachment sites are hidden from view, eliminating the need for exact color matching to hide the attachment sites. A need also exists for an architectural panel design with interlocking members that press the panel against the wall or other building surface when the interlocking members are engaged between adjacent panels. Such a design would provide increased stability and strength to the interlocked panels and reduce panel failure and/or detachment, for example in high wind conditions.